A Good Life
by N B Higham
Summary: Discovering that Naruto is a bearer of the Mokuton bloodline, he is apprenticed to Tenzo for training at the age of Training for four years, Naruto is placed in the academy for a year, before officially becoming a ninja of But with this power, there are secrets in the village, and they all seem to revolve around
1. Chapter 1

Naruto was running. It felt like all he could remember was running. His life had never been easy, but on today, on his birthday, it had taken a horrible turn. He had been running for hours, fearing what he knew they would do if they could catch him. They had never caught him before, but Naruto would not take his chances on what they would do if they did catch him.

Seeing a chance to catch his breath, Naruto dove around the corner, into an alleyway, diving into a dumpster before they could see him, and holding his breath, he peaked through a gap between the lid of the dumpster, and the dumpster itself.

Even as the dumpster lid stopped moving, a crowd of nearly a dozen, to twenty people came storming around the corner. They were all normal people, merchants, stall-vendors, construction workers, fathers and mothers. Yet to Naruto, they were evil. Stinking of alcohol, they would chase him every year, on the day of his birthday, but Naruto had never let them catch him.

For the four years prior to this, whenever these same people tried to catch him, Naruto would run inside the orphanage where he lived, and they would protect him, and keep the bad people out. But two days before today, a new man had purchased the orphanage, and his first order of business, was to throw Naruto out.

As the crowd moved on, and their angry voices faded away until he could no longer hear them, Naruto cautiously poked his head out of the dumpster, and with some trepidation, he climbed out of the dumpster, landing lightly on his feet.

Naruto knew that the only place he could go to get help now, was the Hokage tower, right in the middle of the village. The only problem was, was that Naruto was more than ten minutes away from the Hokage tower, and there was a dozen angry, drunk adults hunting him between here, and there.

Naruto looked around quickly for any means to climb up onto the rooftops, it was there that he could travel the easiest, for whatever reason, no one ever seemed to look up for him. Seeing a drain pipe going up the side of a building, Naruto moved swiftly, and with grace unusual for that of an eight year old boy, climbed up the drain pipe, and began running through the rooftops.

It should have been simple enough, use the roof tops, and the thick cables connecting many of the buildings to move to the tower, and it would have been, if Naruto hadn't stepped on a loose piece of shingle, and ended up slipping and rolling in a tumble down off of the roof to the ground.

With an "off" of pain, Naruto stood up, looking around for a second, only to see that one of the woman who had chased him had observed his fall. Even from as far away as he was, Naruto could hear her yell, "Kusen! I found the brat!" Her voice was heavily slurred from the effects of alcohol.

Looking quickly, Naruto could see that there was no chance for him to reach the Hokage tower before the quickly reappearing crowd would get to him, so taking a quick look for an escape route, Naruto saw that he could jump from a dumpster and catch a ledge leading back up to the roof.

Even as Naruto's plan formulated itself in his mind, he was not fast enough as the man, Kusen, grabbed him by the back of his shirt, and hauled him kicking and screaming farther down the alley. As Naruto was thrown to the ground, he hit his head hard and he couldn't react as the crowd around him grew.

In total, there was eight people who stood in a circle around Naruto, normal civilians who's need to grieve over the loved ones they had lost, all placed the blame on Naruto. In the back of their heads, they knew Naruto couldn't possibly be the Kyuubi, but with more than a fair share of alcohol, and a few drunken words, they couldn't care.

Kusen takes action first, the middle aged butcher grabbing Naruto's hair roughly; pulling Naruto painfully to his feet, only hit Naruto as hard as he could in the nose. The blow knocked Naruto over, leaving him clutching his nose in pain as he can see all of the blood pouring from the wound.

As Naruto was laying there clutching at his broken and bleeding nose, there was a sudden shift in the overall mood of the group, as Kusen's action brazened the rest of them. With moments, Naruto was curled up into a tight ball as a barrage of fists and kicks hit him, seeming to hit his whole body, the pain never ending.

As this goes on, Naruto catches bits and pieces of the curses and obscenities that they were yelling at him, and yet they all had a central theme. 'They are doing this because I am some kind of demon, the Kyuubi?'

"How does it feel Demon? This is for the thousands of people you killed when you got here. Were going to kill you nice and slow, and make you suffer while you are defenseless in your human form that Yondaime-sama trapped you in. After all the trouble that the Sandaime went through to try and make you seem human, the Sandaime even went so far as to give you a name. Ha! Despicable!"

Naruto couldn't do anything but tuck his head to his chest as the beating intensified, and as Naruto's eyes started to close, and he started to black out, the blows stopped coming. He heard a series of thuds, and he heard the voice of Kusen cry out, and then everything was quiet.

Looking up from his fetal position, Naruto watched as the group of half a dozen men was thrown randomly around the alleyway, a green and blue blur being all that Naruto could see. And suddenly it was over, and standing with his back to Naruto was a man, in the typical Konoha jounin outfit, but Naruto could see a tie keeping a mask over his face.

He turned around, and Naruto could see that the man's face was covered by a white Anbu mask, and Naruto couldn't tell anything about him, other than his brown hair. Naruto was shocked, this man went out of his way to help him?

He said not a word as Naruto just stared at him, the pain was too extreme, and any movement he tried to make was met with an increased level of pain. He reached down to Naruto, and with extreme care, lifted him up into his arms, leaving his head to rest against his shoulder.

Naruto closed his eyes, knowing it was over, and immediately he was unconscious.

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, and the first thing that he could see, were white ceiling tiles. He pulled himself up, so that he could look around, and he can see that he was in a bed with white sheets, and that he was in a very plain room, with only a chair next to his bed and a single window. 'Oh great, I'm in the hospital, but what happened?'

Even as he began to start looking around, he watched as a nurse into the room, a pleasant smile on her face at seeing Naruto awake. "Oh, you're awake already. That is surprising, it has only been 3 days, and I thought it would take weeks to recover from what those men did to you. You were a bloody mess when the Anbu brought you in. Oh, I will go get Hokage-sama immediately. He requested to be brought to you as soon as you woke up."

I just stared at her in a daze as she walked out of the room. My body felt absolutely fine, but I was stuck on 3 days.' I was in the hospital for 3 DAYS!' He had never so much as been in the hospital before, whenever he got hurt, all he had to do was rest and it would heal right up.

He laid there on the bed for about three minutes before he began to get bored, so he lifted up the covers, swung his feet onto the floor, and stood up. Feeling as if he should wait for the Hokage, Naruto suppressed the thought, feeling the need to get up and move.

The door to Naruto's room was at the far end of a hallway, so after looking around for a brief moment, Naruto stepped out into the hallway and slid the door shut behind him. Walking to the other end of the hallway, Naruto found himself in the reception room for the hospital, and as the receptionist turned to look at Naruto, she gasped.

Naruto was standing there in nothing more than the loose hospital garb, and looking down, Naruto became privy to that fact, as his face became bright red and he ran back to his room in shame at neglecting to notice such a thing.

Naruto sat at the edge of his bed, moving the sheets to cover up as much as he could. he didn't have to wait long before Sarutobi knocked on the door, and pushed it open as he walked in. as he walked in, Naruto knew that the receptionist had told him what had happened.

He walked in with a grin on his face, and said "So you are in such a hurry to leave, you don't want to at least have clothes on before you go outside?"

Naruto blushed like a ripe tomato and replied "I didn't notice I didn't have clothes on until the lady stared at me when I was trying to leave."

"Regardless Naruto-kun, you cannot leave yet, it's a miracle that you can even walk yet. You shouldn't even be awake yet, the damage done to your body should have kept you unconscious for weeks, not only three days out of one week. "

"But I'm okay Ji-Ji. Honestly. I feel perfectly fine. I can walk, and nothing hurts at all." At this point, Naruto swung himself back out of the bed, and ran in place to show Sarutobi that he was fine.

"Haha, I guess you are fine after all. I am just very surprised, the doctor told me that you had seven broken ribs, various internal bruising, and a broken arm." 'Hmmm, it must have something to do with the Kyuubi's chakra in his body. Advanced healing maybe? This will prompt further investigation.'

"So if I am all fine now, can I leave Ji-Ji? Please?" Naruto wanted nothing to do with the hospital, he had never had to go to it before, and he did not want to make a habit out of it.

Seeming to give in, Sarutobi conceded, "Alright fine Naruto, you can go now if you want."

"Yeah!" Naruto raced from the room, dashed down the hallway, and ran right out of the door. Sarutobi smiles as Naruto leaves. 'I wonder when he will notice…'

Only then did Naruto realize that he was still in his boxers. A bright red blush appeared on Naruto's face when he noticed that everyone in the street was staring at him, and in an effort to save his dignity, he ran back into the building.

Sarutobi was sitting on the bed when he ran back into the room, and he was smiling brightly, but Naruto could easily tell that he was only just containing his laughter.

Naruto looked down in embarrassment as he tried to hide his blush, "Hey, ugh Ji-Ji, where are my clothes?"

"Well Naruto, they were not in very good shape when you were brought here after what had happened, so I sent my personal assistant out to buy you something to wear when you are ready to leave."

"Okay Ji-Ji. But where will I go when I can leave? I kind of forgot that I was kicked out of the orphanage."

This greatly surprised Sarutobi, he personally knew the older couple who owned and ran the orphanage, and he had absolute faith they would protect Naruto, they always had before. "Naruto why would they do that, I know they are very nice people."

Naruto seemed ashamed for a second, "Well a young man bought the orphanage from Tsukune-san and Akina-san, and he made me leave, saying I wasn't worth the effort to take care of." As if he was the one to blame, Naruto ducked his head in shame, as tears welled in his eyes.

'I am going to have to find out who it was that bought the orphanage, and I will charge him with criminal negligence of a child.' Realizing that Naruto needed some comfort, Sarutobi spoke up, "Alright then Naruto, I will arrange for you to be given an apartment as soon as I get to the office."

"Oh really Ji-Ji, I get to live by myself? I can be just like an adult!" Seeming very excited, it was a clear contrast as Naruto stopped and looked suddenly depressed, "But umm Ji-Ji, I have a question that I have to ask, am I a demon?"

AN: Okay WOW! I sat down to FINALLY get this done maybe 5 days ago, but it took me forever to rewrite and entire two thousand word document from first person point of view to the usual third person perspective that I prefer to write in. So yeah! A Good Life, first chapter is all redone and edited, and I am working on the rest of them now, I should have them out every few days until I have to start writing new chapters before I am done rewriting first.

With the complete flops that the two new stories I posted were, I wasn't really excited about posting another new story, as I know that the majority of my readers just want me to finish what I already have started, and I should. But I feel that A Good Life deserves a chance, because it has twice as many hits as all of my other stories COMBINED!


	2. Chapter 2

"Why would you ask a question like that Naruto?"

"Well, when those men attacked me, they said that I had done all of these horrible things and that I was defenseless in my human form, and they called me a demon. Am I a demon? They said that Yondaime-sama sealed me in a human form. Am I a demon in a human form? I want to know why people hate me, and why those people would hurt me like that."

Full blown tears were streaming down Naruto's tears as his façade fell away to reveal how broken he really was. Sarutobi reached out and wrapped his arms around Naruto, pulling him into a tight hug, 'It breaks my heart to know that people would do this, and I think that the only thing that can help Naruto right now is the truth.'

"Alright Naruto, I guess you deserve to know the truth." Sarutobi sighed before he continued, "On October 10th, the day you were born, when the Kyuubi attacked the village, it killed hundreds of our ninja, and nearly as many as that in defenseless civilians. So, my successor, the Yondaime Hokage had to find a way to defeat the demon. After thinking on it, he decided that the Kyuubi needed to be sealed into a human host body."

Naruto's mind began to spin, 'The Yondaime sealed into a human, me.'

"But because putting a tailed beast into a human being forces the humans chakra coils to adapt to the foreign chakra, it had to be sealed into a baby whose chakra coils were developing, so that they could adapt to the foreign chakra. Now since you were the only child who was young enough to adapt to the Kyuubi, the Yondaime chose you to seal the Kyuubi into. And Naruto, this does not mean that you are the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi was sealed INTO you. It is trapped inside your body, but you are still Naruto Uzumaki, and don't let anyone tell you that you are a demon."

Naruto was silent as his mind raced a million miles an hour, so deciding that he should continue telling Naruto the whole story, Sarutobi kept talking.

"The sealing took the Yondaime's life. But when I ran to where you were laid out, the Anbu with me left quickly after confirming the danger was gone, and they spread the word that the Kyuubi was sealed into you. Word soon spread all the way throughout the village about you."

"The general populace freaked out, and maybe if they had all been able to think clearly about it, they would have come to the conclusion you were no danger, but dealing with the grief of losing so many lives and close ones, they simply redirected their hate from the Kyuubi to you. Now I know that this is a lot for you to take in, but I have to say that I am sorry that this life was given to you before you were born."

"Why did no one ever tell me? Why did I not deserve to know?"

"Naruto, it is not that you didn't deserve to know, it's that I wanted, and still want, you to have a normal childhood. I made a law stating that it was illegal, and punishable by death to inform anyone your age about the Kyuubi, it is a very harsh law, unlike anything I have ever done, because I wanted you to live a normal life. Now a lot of adults simply told their kids not to be around you, because they were and are afraid of what is inside of you."

Naruto had tears openly streaming down his face as he hugged Sarutobi tighter, "Thank you Ji-Ji, I'm so glad you tried to help me when you could. But I have one question, who is the masked man who saved me?"

"Oh, that is ANBU captain Tenzo. He is one of my most high ranking ANBU members."

"Do you think he could teach me to be a ninja? I want to be a ninja, so that I can prove that I am not a demon, and that I am Naruto Uzumaki, citizen of Konoha, and not "the Kyuubi no Kitsune in human form". Then no one would hate me, and then I could live a normal life."

"Well I don't know if I could have Tenzo teach you, he is a very valuable member of ANBU, it would be a big decision for him, because he does a lot of good as an Anbu member, but I will ask him to at least help you a little bit. I will send him to your apartment tomorrow, and he will help teach you some basics , and if he sees fit, maybe something else. But it will only be until you can enroll in the academy next year, after some things happen, specialized training of children is something I no longer allow, every child has to go through the academy before receiving a higher level of training."

"Thank you Ji-Ji, I will learn whatever Tenzo-sensei wants me to learn, and then I will be top of the class in the academy! And that's a promise!" Naruto's mood had improved a lot, it was a lot to take in, and yet Naruto wanted to prove the villagers wrong, rather than hate them back.

Sarutobi smiled at Naruto as he stood up, "That's the spirit Naruto; it's always good to be an enthusiastic learner. And when you get to the academy, remember this, everything that they teach you at the academy will help you become a better ninja."

"Okay Ji-Ji, I will remember that."

Both Naruto and Sarutobi turn as someone began knocking on the door. "Excuse me Hokage-sama; I have brought Naruto his clothes and some food."

"Ah, thank you Asami-chan, now I can go find Naruto an apartment to stay at."

Asami hands Naruto his clothes, then leaves the room, to head back to the Hokage Tower to do paperwork.

Naruto quickly changes into the slightly large clothes, black cargo jeans, a dark red t-shirt with a black swirl on the back and black ninja sandals.

"Alright Naruto lets go find you an apartment to stay at. The orphanage taught you how to cook right?"

"Umm, no, they didn't. They said that I didn't need to know how, because they always gave me instant ramen." Naruto was eating the take-out that Asami had brought, a simple stir fry that tasted like the best thing in the world to Naruto.

"They only fed you instant ramen? They told me they fed you perfectly balanced meals with the rest of the kids, it's no wonder you are so short, the malnutrition has stunted your growth. I guess that I will have to get you a cook book so you can teach yourself, but I won't be able to get anyone to teach you, it would not be fair to waste their time like that. But let's go now Naruto, when we get to my office, I will pull out the apartment records, and look for vacancies to get you a place to stay."

With that, they left the hospital, and walked to the Hokage Tower. They walked up to Sarutobi's office, and he sat down and pulled a record book out of a filing cabinet. After leafing through the book, he found a suitable apartment. "Your apartment will be apartment number 28, in the Ken Apartment building, only half a block from the Hokage tower. I will walk with you there now, and I will tell the apartment building owner that you will be staying there, free of charge, because you're an orphan. I will also have your first months' worth of groceries delivered, and some more clothing. Would the same shirts and pants be fine?"

Naruto nodded, saying "Yeah that would be fine, and for some reason I really like the swirl on the back of the shirt, it looks really cool." Sarutobi was able to appreciate the irony in that, 'If only he knew he was wearing his clan's symbol, I just hope that he doesn't dig into the symbol's origins, I was going to get him red shirts without the symbol, but I guess he would want to know why I didn't get the same ones, and he might get curious about it.'

With that, they walked out of the Hokage tower, walked around to the back of the building, walked down a street, and walked into the reception area of the apartment building, and with a quick chat between the Hokage and the receptionist, she handed over a key to Sarutobi, and they headed up the stairs, and walked up to the second floor, and Sarutobi unlocked the second door on the left. Sarutobi opened the door, and gestured Naruto inside.

Naruto looked around, and the room they first entered was the living room, and there was two couches to the left, and they would both sit 3 people comfortably, and there was a large bookshelf as well in the corner of the room. The door was right behind one of the couches, and straight away from the door, was a hallway with a door at the end, and another door on the right. The couch was to the left of the door, and to the right, was a bar, with bar seats to eat at. Past the bar, was the kitchen. In the kitchen, were brand new appliances, and there was an island in the middle of the kitchen.

Naruto walked in, and walked down the hallway, and opened the door on the right, and saw that it is the bathroom, with a brand new shower, toilet, and sink.

Next, he opened the door at the end of the hall, leading to the bedroom. It had a queen sized bed, with a dresser on one side, and an end table on the other side. There was also a small closet that Naruto mentally reminded himself to check later. There was also another door on the left, and when Naruto opened it, he saw a washer and dryer. There was also a cupboard over the washer and dryer. It also appeared, that the washer and dryer was an all-in-one machine, so it washes, and dries your clothes in one go, so that there is no need to rotate the laundry. The whole apartment was all brand new, and Naruto got to live there free.

Naruto walked back to the living room, and saw Sarutobi sitting on the couch, smiling. "Thank you Ji-Ji, I can't believe I get to live here for free! Everything is brand new, and this is just great!" He threw himself on Sarutobi, crying happily.

Sarutobi smiled, and hugged Naruto back as Naruto cried happily.

Finally, Naruto stood up, and so did Sarutobi. "Well Naruto, I have to go now, and Tenzo will be here tomorrow. I will also send Rin-chan here with your first months' worth of groceries, and your stipend. You should spend the rest of the day looking through your apartment more closely, and getting acquainted with everything. I would like you to look through the bookshelf too. This whole apartment is for ninjas, so the book shelf should be full of scrolls containing ninja history, and you might even find something interesting in there as well. But if you find any jutsu of any sort, show it to me or Tenzo before you do anything with it. We wouldn't want you attempting something that is way beyond your capability."

Naruto nodded, "I understand, thank you Ji-Ji, so much, for everything."

Sarutobi smiled at Naruto as he began to close the door, "I will see in a bit Naruto-kun."

With that, he left, and Naruto stood there looking around for a couple of minutes, before deciding to look to see what was in the kitchen.

He walked into the kitchen, and looked through the drawers and cabinets. The whole kitchen had all that he would need to cook with, except food. There was even a sushi bar, so Naruto made a mental note to ask how to make sushi.

Next, Naruto decided to look at the book shelf full of scrolls. Looking through the bookshelf, Naruto found all kinds of cool sounding things to read, 'Leaf Village Academy History, History of the Village Hidden in Leaves, Learning to Channel Chakra, and what is this?'

Naruto found a small book, that looked more than a little worn, and Naruto read the title out loud, "Konoha Bingo Book? What is that?" Opening up the book, Naruto couldn't believe what was in it, a list of the strongest ninja in the world! With as much info that the village had on them, this was not an ordinary book, and Naruto knew that it shouldn't have been just laying around.

This was the first sign that things were not what they seemed in this amazing apartment, and in the future, when he looks back on it, sometimes Naruto wished he had just walked out of the apartment when he had the chance to.

Still curious about the rest of the apartment, Naruto set the book back down, leaving himself a mental not to check it more later. Since he had already checked the kitchen, Naruto decided to check the bedroom next, so he walked down the hallway into the room that was now his.

As he had already noticed, there was a queen sized bed, the separate room with a washer and dryer, and the closet he had yet to check out. Naruto moves over to the closet, and opens up the doors.

It was only a small closet, with a bar coming across the back wall to hang things up, and the only other thing in the room was a cabinet up against the wall to the right, but as Naruto looked closer at it, he could see that it had been moved to cover up a gap in the wall, and he could see part of the gap as the cabinet didn't entirely cover it up, it must have been moved in a hurry.

His curiosity too much to bear, Naruto pushed on the cabinet, and using all of his strength he managed to push it away from the gap, revealing the whole thing. It was about two and a half feet wide, and only four feet high, and Naruto couldn't see anything as whatever space there was behind it was completely dark.

Foregoing whatever consequences there were, Naruto stepped into the darkness.

* * *

AN: So what do you all think? This is the first major change in plot from the original version, as there were a lot of problems with what I had previously done with this chapter. What will Naruto find in the darkness hidden in the closet? What purpose could there be for this hidden room? Please stay tuned for the third chapter!


	3. Sorry Guys

Hey guys im sorry, but my laptop has a virus on it, me and my buddy Jarret got fucked over by a game we were playing and it gave us virus' so there won't be any updates for quite a while until I can get my laptop fixed up, I will see about writing on a desktop I have a little bit, but it is a 2007 POS so I really don't want to do that. Until I get it taken care of, I can't do jack shit on my laptop because it says there is a file missing every time I try to open anything at all on my laptop, even my internet browsers. It has stumped my computer geek friend, so I will have to take it in to like Geek Squad or something. It has been three weeks already since I got the virus, so I don't know what I can do to fix my laptop, all of my FanFic and original work is on there, so pray with me that the hard drive is okay. Well, until next time guys,


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